Engineers arrived at the scene later in the morning and began working to get measurements of how wide and deep the sinkhole is. From the outside, there were no cracks or visible signs of damage to the home. The front door was open, but taped off.

A man screamed for help and disappeared as a large sinkhole opened under the bedroom of the house, his brother said Friday. The brother told rescue crews he heard a loud crash near midnight Thursday, then heard his brother screaming. The brother called police and frantically tried to help. An arriving deputy pulled him from the still-collapsing house. There’s been no contact with the man since then, and neighbors on both sides of the home have been evacuated. (Photo: AP/Chris O’Meara)

Janell Wheeler told the Tampa Bay Times she was inside the house with four other adults, a child and two dogs when the sinkhole opened.

“It sounded like a car hit my house,” she said.

It was dark. She remembered screams and one of her nephews rushing to rescue his brother, trapped in the debris.

Wheeler’s house was condemned. The rest of the family went to a hotel but she stayed behind with her dog, sleeping in her car.

“I just want my nephew,” she said through tears.

This regarding the still developing incident says the missing man is presumed dead:

As the rock dissolves, spaces and caverns develop underground. Sinkholes are dramatic because the land usually stays intact for a while until the underground spaces just get too big. If there is not enough support for the land above the spaces then a sudden collapse of the land surface can occur. These collapses can be small, as this picture shows, or they can be huge and can occur where a house or road is on top.

This map shows the different types of rocks in different areas around the country that can be prone being dissolved by ground water and thus could create sinkholes. (Image: USGS)

The Tampa Bay Times recently completed a series on sinkholes in Florida, showing hundreds living in “Florida’s sinkhole alley,” which included Hernando, Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. The Jan. 4, 2013, article by the Times focused on insurance for sinkholes and issues stemming from homeowners collecting funds but not using them for repairs.